ELECTRICITY PPL to lower its rates

ALLENTOWN – PPL Electric Utilities will change its generation service charge Dec. 1 based on the latest costs to supply service to customers who do not choose an alternative supplier in the competitive power market.

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Wayne Independent - Honesdale, PA

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Posted Nov. 26, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Updated Nov 27, 2012 at 3:25 PM

Posted Nov. 26, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Updated Nov 27, 2012 at 3:25 PM

ALLENTOWN – PPL Electric Utilities will change its generation service charge Dec. 1 based on the latest costs to supply service to customers who do not choose an alternative supplier in the competitive power market.

The utility's generation and transmission rates combined make up the "price to compare" for the purposes of shopping among alternative suppliers. The price to compare will decrease slightly for residential and small commercial customers on the utility's default supply service.

For residential customers, the new price to compare will be 7.544 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from 7.907 cents per kilowatt-hour currently.

The components of the price to compare make up about two-thirds of the typical residential monthly bill for non-shopping customers. The price to compare does not include the distribution charges on a customer's bill, which apply to all customers and cover the company's costs to deliver power and provide customer service.

For small business customers, the new price to compare will be 10.206 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with 10.346 cents per kilowatt-hour currently. A full list of PPL Electric Utilities' new rates for all rate classes can be found at www.pplelectric.com/choice.

While usage is higher in the winter and summer months, this has been offset by falling energy prices, resulting in a small decrease to the price to compare for the December 2012 through February 2013 period.

PPL Electric Utilities adjusts its generation rates and prices to compare for residential and small business customers every three months to reflect the cost of power purchases and adjustments based on customer use in the prior period.

The generation rate for large industrial customers is based on hourly market prices. The company's generation rates change March 1, June 1, Sept. 1 and Dec. 1 each year, similar to other utilities in Pennsylvania.

PPL Electric Utilities does not receive any profit on the generation portion of customers' bills. It merely passes along the cost of that supply to customers without markup. PPL Electric Utilities' primary focus is on electric delivery, billing and customer service.

PPL Electric Utilities encourages its customers to seek opportunities to save on power supply costs by shopping for deals with alternative suppliers. A list of state-licensed suppliers and their offer prices are available from the PUC's website, www.PAPowerSwitch.com. About 40 suppliers are currently serving the residential market in PPL Electric Utilities' service area.

More than 605,000 PPL Electric Utilities customers, or 43 percent of all customers, have already shopped and obtain their power from other suppliers. More than 81 percent of the total amount of energy delivered by PPL Electric Utilities comes from alternative suppliers, including almost all power used by large commercial and industrial customers.

PPL Electric Utilities, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), provides electric delivery services to about 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania and consistently ranks among the best companies for customer service in the United States. More information is available at www.pplelectric.com.